Unless for some reason you have been completely off social media for the last few years, then you will have heard of influencer marketing, and the influence that it is having on brands and businesses around the world.

The thing about influencers is that they are literally everywhere. It seems these days like everybody’s goal is to become famous on social media.

Considering how many people have done it already and have shown how appealing it is to live the lifestyle, we can understand why so many people might want to take their piece of the pie as well.

People look up to them, and they earn money by living a certain lifestyle. Brands and businesses want to work with them, and they have garnered the trust of thousands, if not millions of audience members.

Obviously, this sounds like the dream life.

Today though, we’re going to look at how much companies spend on influencer marketing, and whether you should be investing in it.

Spending on Influencer Marketing

90% of marketers have planned to increase their marketing budget for influencer spending.

The influencer marketing budget around the world is expected to reach $10 billion in 2020.

Spending on influencer marketing alone in 2020 is expected to reach $8 billion on Instagram.

For every dollar spent on influencer marketing, the average ROI was $6.50.

49% of customers rely on advice from influencers before they purchase something.

94% of marketers consider influencer marketing campaigns to be successful.

Managers of advertising see influencer marketing as the quickest growing method of customer acquisition.

As you can see, we’ve got some pretty mind-blowing numbers here. However, before we take a dip into the world of influencer marketing, let’s learn a bit about the influencers themselves.

What are Influencers?

So, an influencer is someone who has a big social media following. This means that they have managed to garner the trust of their followers and are able to influence the way that they behave.

So, unlike celebrities, who don’t have any credibility in the eyes of consumers, influencers have a lot of social proof among their audience.

They spend a lot of their time customizing their social media image, and they definitely wouldn’t risk promoting something just because they’re trying to get paid.

This is why people find them really trustworthy.

Because of this credibility, influencers are becoming more and more popular in the world of marketing. With their help, companies can gain exposure, and attract new consumers.

Unsurprisingly, 49% of customers rely on influencer’s advice. This is a massive number of potential clients, and it is one of the biggest reasons to join forces with influencers.

Working with an influencer is going to mean that they let you borrow their reputation, so that you can use it to endorse your product or raise awareness around your brand.

Influencers and companies agree on the cost per post.

They are also going to talk about things like how many posts they will upload on their behalf, the kind of content, as well as the time that the contract is going to be valid for.

How Big is Influencer Marketing?

This is the million-dollar question. As we mentioned above, there are a lot of people out there that consider influencer marketing to be the fastest growing way to attract new consumers to your company.

So, what is the operative word here? Well, we think that it is ‘growing’. Of course, you can’t pin down the exact size of the influencer marketing industry, because it is always getting bigger.

As social media keeps becoming more popular, so does the credibility of influencers. It is no wonder that companies are so keen to get on the good side of influencers and capitalize on their credibility.

Believe it or not, 90% of marketers have decided to increase their marketing budget specifically to use in conjunction with influencers.

How Much Does it Cost?

Naturally, the next million-dollar question is going to be how much does it cost to collaborate with it an Instagram influencer? Well, this is going to depend on a few things.

The first is which platform you are choosing to collaborate with them on, as well as the kind of influencer.

There are many different kinds of influencers, from those that are really small, to those that have millions of people following them.

Another thing to think about is how long you plan to collaborate with them for, as well as the number of posts you plan to do together, the kind of post you plan to do, and how much production costs are going to be.

Experts believe that influencer spending is going to reach $15 billion by 2022. This is a $14.5 billion increase from back in 2015.

As brands catch on to the idea of influencer marketing and how it can really leverage their product, they are becoming more and more willing to put money into this particular type of advertising.

This is why the total spend globally on influencer marketing is touted to reach up to $10 billion in 2020.

You’re probably wondering at this point, where is all this money going? Of course, there are a lot of social media platforms out there that you can utilize for influencer marketing, and each one has its advantages and disadvantages.

So, with this in mind, which one is the most popular? According to the most recent research, it is Instagram. It has been considered the fastest growing social media network for a while.

The amount that companies around the world spent on Instagram influencer marketing in 2020 was $8 million. This means that marketers really love working with Instagram influencers.

It also turns out that Instagram influencers happen to be really efficient at what they do. Why? Well, it has been widely discussed that individuals tend to prefer visual content over text.

Instagram has a lot of freedom around this medium and the great news is that you can go beyond images, and even incorporated video into your influencer marketing campaign as well.

However, there is another feature that really stands out when it comes to using Instagram for Influencer marketing, and this is the fact that Instagram has shoppable photos.

This means that Instagram lets businesses with business accounts tag their photos with products. When you click on this tag, you are going to be redirected to a full description of the product, and you will be able to purchase that product.

In 2020, the number of sponsored posts on Instagram was more than six million. This figure has increased exponentially since 2016, when it was just 1.2 million.

As a result, marketing budgets for Instagram influencers are expected to reach $8 billion in 2020. Obviously, companies really love Instagram.

So, what is the fee per post with Instagram? Well, a lot of people are going to say that all depends on how many followers you have.

If you have between 5000 and 10,000 followers on Instagram, you can expect to charge between $100 and $500 per post.

If you have 10,000 to 20,000 Instagram followers, you can expect to charge between $500 and $800 per post.

If you have between 25,000 and 50,000 Instagram followers, you can expect to be able to charge between $800 and $1500 per post.

If you’ve got between 50,000 and 100,000 followers on Instagram, you can expect to charge between $1500 and $2000.

If you have between 100,000 followers and 250,000 followers on Instagram, you can expect to charge between $2000 and $6000 per post.

If you have between 250,000 followers on Instagram, and 1,000,000 followers on Instagram, you can expect to charge between $6000 and $10,000 per post.

If you are someone who has more than a million followers on Instagram, then you can be charging the companies that you collaborate with $10,000 per post.

Of course, this is just a general guide, and this is going to vary depending on the deal that you have signed, as well as the company that you have chosen to sign up with.

There are some social media agencies out there that claim that the easiest formula is to be looking at it like you’re going to be able to charge $10 for every 1000 Instagram followers.

Other Social Platforms

Instagram is the quickest growing platform, but it isn’t the only platform out there that lets its users post video content.

It has been proven that 80% of individuals remember video content better than any other kind of content, so of course, if you want to take your company to the next level, you will want to invest in this kind of content.

So, what is the first platform that you can think of when we say the word video?

If it’s YouTube, then you’d be right. YouTube is the place where people first got started with video, and first started figuring out they could actually make money from creating videos.

It is one of the original social sites that enabled its users to make money from their content, but as you can expect, creating a video and editing it is going to cost you a lot more time and sometimes money than simply creating a photo, and posting it to your Instagram feed.

As a result, if you are collaborating with a company on YouTube, you can definitely charge them more per video that you made for them. The general rule is that YouTubers get $20 for every 1000 followers.

The other thing to think about YouTube is that it relies on views. This means that there are companies out there that pay between $50 and $100 per 1000 views.

This is why if you are a company, and you are trying to find a YouTuber to work with, you will need to go back through their videos, and see how many views they’re getting.

Moving onto another video platform, calculating how much you are going to need in your influencer marketing budget for Snapchat is a little more challenging.

This is because the platform doesn’t show how many followers a user is getting, so it all comes down to the views.

Some rely on the views from their very first Snapchat story, while others look at views from their campaign. As a general rule, marketers tend to pay roughly $100 per 1000 views on Snapchat.

Let’s think about a couple of other social platforms for a second, like Twitter and Facebook.

What’s interesting about these two platforms is that they aren’t actually really all that popular when it comes to influencer marketing.

This is because influencers themselves don’t really tend to be on these networks. Twitter is primarily used for shout outs, and Facebook is used to promote content from other social media.

When it comes to both platforms though, they can be used to connect with customers. Of course, a customer having a good experience is really important for any kind of marketing strategy.

So, have we covered them all at this point? We’ve still got one up our sleeve, and it might surprise you. Twitch as a video streaming platform that has become really popular among gamers online.

If you know Twitch, and if you use it, you are probably wondering if it can be helpful for influencer marketing. The thing about Twitch influencers is that they have a huge number of followers.

They aren’t going to have the same approach as beauty influencers for example, but they are still going to be really good at promoting your product.

This is because they can mention your product while they are streaming live, or they can place the product near them, so that viewers can see them.

You can also become a sponsor of a streamer, which is going to gain you more exposure.

When it comes to thinking about how much you will need to save up in your influencer marketing strategy for Twitch, there is no way of knowing.

This is because the platform is relatively new to the world of marketing, and so we can’t apply the same formula as we have with other sites like YouTube and Instagram.

However, we actually think that this uncertainty means that you have a bit of an advantage. You will have less competition, and you might even be able to negotiate some better prices.

Our advice when it comes to Twitch is not to underestimate its ability when it comes to influencer marketing.

Market Spend Based on Industry

Of course, it is difficult to give specific numbers for every industry and social media outlet, and pricing is going to vary between influencers as well.

However, what we can do is give you an average for one of the most popular platforms out there, which of course is Instagram.

According to research back in 2017, influencers on Instagram that were in the travel industry got paid the most for their sponsored posts.

On average, they were able to make $220 from a single post. This was closely followed by influencers in the entertainment category, like gamers and comedians who were able to earn $209 per post.

In third place were lifestyle influencers and home influencers who were able to charge $204 per post.

If you were a health and fitness influencer, you were able to charge $193 per post, and if you were in the fashion industry, you could charge $173 a post. If you were in the photography industry, you would be able to charge $171 per post.

If you created content that was related to drinks or food, you would be able to charge $169 per Instagram post, and if you were in their beauty influencer category, it you could charge $160 a post.

Also, in the top ten of influencers on Instagram were business influencers, who could charge $134 per post. Now that we have talked about cold hard numbers, let’s talk a little bit about ROI.

The thing is that these days, influencer marketing is a big deal. 94% of companies consider their influencer marketing campaigns to be a great success.

However, if you fit into the 6% that haven’t attempted to try this strategy yet, then we think that you are missing out on a great opportunity.

Also, the average ROI for every dollar that you spend on influencer marketing is $6.50. This isn’t even the top earners, because they would get upwards of $20.

In fact, back in 2018, companies claimed that they got 11 times the ROI from marketing methods associated with influencers than from using traditional marketing, including TV and magazines.

And as far as an influencer goes, if you have roughly 42,000 followers and you post eight posts a month, you could earn around $37,000 a year.

According to some other statistics that we have found around influencer marketing, if you are a influencer over on TikTok, then you need at least 270 million views a year, and more than 10,000 subscribers to make $100,000 every year.

Final Thoughts

So, what are the key takeaways from this article?

We think that the first is that not only is influencer marketing really big, but it is only getting bigger, and it is becoming even more important when it comes to any success that you might experience online.

It has the ability to outshine the majority of traditional marketing methods.

We have already talked about how influencer marketing expenditure is expected to hit the $10 billion mark in 2020, and 94% of companies out there believe that their influencer marketing campaigns are a success.

So, if you haven’t already, then we highly recommend that you try out influencer marketing next time you want to get your brand out there in front of the right people.

You never know, you might fall in love with it, and not want to use any other approach ever again. Good luck!

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